HB2 Updates

September 12, 2014Oral Arguments from the 5th Circuit Court, on HB2

New Round in Battle Over Texas Abortion Clinics September 12 - We Must Step Up the Fight!September 8, 2014from StopPatriarchy.orgOn September 12, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans will hear arguments in a challenge brought by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott that could reinstate a law which would force the closure of all but six or seven abortion clinics in Texas.

Last year, Texas Governor Rick Perry forced through HB2, one of the most extreme anti-abortion laws ever passed. Parts of this law – its requirements that all abortion doctors have hospital admitting privileges, its ban on abortion after 20 weeks, and its onerous restrictions on the administration of medication abortion – have already gone into effect, making abortion much more difficult to access for Texas's more than 26 million people. Half the state's abortion clinics have been forced to close.

The final provision of HB2 – its requirement that all abortion clinics comply with the physical standards of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (essentially mini-emergency rooms) – was set to go into effect on September 1st, but was overturned at the last minute by Federal Judge Yeakel after a legal challenge brought by several abortion providers. Yeakel ruled that this requirement was not only medically unnecessary, but that it also put an “undue burden” on women's ability to access abortion (this is the constitutional standard established in the 1992 Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood vs. Casey). Yeakel also ruled that two clinics which had previously been forced to close – one in the impoverished Rio Grande region along the U.S./Mexico border, the other in El Paso in the far western part of the state) should be able to re-open.

This was a very important, albeit partial, victory.

Throughout the summer, StopPatriarchy.org mobilized a powerful Abortion Rights Freedom Ride which brought dozens of volunteers down to Texas for over a month to fight against these clinic closures. We organized powerful People's Hearings as well as dramatic photogenic protests in Houston, Austin, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley. We raised the slogans “Abortion On Demand and Without Apology” and “Forced Motherhood is Female Enslavement” to not only wake people up to the immediate emergency in Texas but also to mobilize them against the nationwide assault on women's right to abortion and full reproductive rights.

These mobilizations by the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride – including 16 arrests during two different protests and a nation-wide Week of Defiance which included actions in Mississippi, Seattle, New York City, western Illinois, Little Rock, Missouri, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and elsewhere – were projected to millions through both the english and spanish media and brought a new, defiant, element into this fight. Without this, there would have been no mass resistance to these clinic closures and millions would have been kept in the dark as to the full scope and stakes of this emergency. This not only contributed to the atmosphere in which these closures were blocked, this work has further carved out a new road in the movement for women's abortion rights and all around liberation: a road of mass independent political resistance that does not rely on the courts or the politicians.

Now, as this ruling is being appealed and could be overturned following this hearing in New Orleans onSeptember 12, it is more urgent than ever that people throughout this country stand up and raise their voices against any more clinic closures. When abortion is not available on demand and without apology, women have their lives foreclosed by forced motherhood or they risk their lives and prison to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

We must not allow this. Check StopPatriarchy.org to learn about and join in plans to take to the streets and express opposition to this online wherever you are.

See right to find out more about the August 29 court ruling to block the final provision of HB2.Join in voicing outrage and defiance to Greg Abbott and Rick Perry.Read more articles from StopPatriarchy.orgBack to homepage

It is very important that Judge Yeakel has blocked – at least for now – the closure of abortion clinics that was scheduled to take place on September 1st, 2014 and laid the basis for the possible reopening of clinics in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley.**

However, this is only a temporary reprieve. It is far from a complete or final victory.

Already this correct ruling is being appealed by the Attorney General to the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans. Further, even with this positive ruling, Texas has only about half the number of abortion clinics it had just three years ago and this is indicative of a nationwide pattern of clinic closures and mounting restrictions, stigma and obstacles placed on women.

As Merle Hoffman, Advisory Board member of the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride, put it, “While we celebrate this victory, it is critical to remember that this is one battle in an ongoing war and we must remain vigilant.”

Sunsara Taylor, initiator of StopPatriarchy.org and Abortion Rights Freedom Rider among those arrested this month protesting HB2, added, “The anti-abortion movement will not stop until they have criminalized all abortions for all women in all circumstances. The emergency facing women is not over. Now is the time to redouble our efforts.”

Abortion must be available on demand and without apology! Forced motherhood is female enslavement. Without the ability to decide for themselves when and whether to have a child, women cannot be free. If women are not free then no one is free.

**This means that abortion will not become any more inaccessible to women throughout the state of Texas in the very short term. It may even mean that abortion becomes more available in the Rio Grande Valley and in Western Texas than it has been in a year, depending on whether those clinics have the ability to reopen.

Join in voicing outrage and defiance to Greg Abbott and Rick Perry.Read more articles from StopPatriarchy.orgBack to homepage

Who is stop patriarchy?

Stop Patriarchy is a group for everyone who wants to FIGHT to STOP the enslavement of women. Not politely lobby against it. Not grumble at the TV. Not simply post things on Twitter. And definitely not sit around waiting for those in power to “come to their senses.” It is also a movement for everyone who can be won to see the need for this – we are fighting aggressively to change minds and to grow and deepen and escalate until we succeed in changing everything. JOIN US!